Coming off his team’s 12-12-4 season a year ago, the 2011-12 Canada West coach of the year is confident this year’s team will be far better.

With 21 returning players along with top end recruits in defencemen Neil Manning from the Vancouver Giants and former Kootenay Ice forward Joe Antilla, a national title may be lofty for UBC, but an improvement in the standings won’t come as a surprise.

“We’re very happy. We feel that we’ve had our best recruiting year since I’ve been here,” said Dragicevic, who’s entering his 11th season at UBC. “We’ve identified the needs that we had to get better at. We feel that we’ve got the pieces in place that we were looking for.”

Recruit spotlight:

Neil Manning

Vancouver Giants (WHL)

One of, if not the best recruit to head to UBC in the last decade, Neil Manning may be the best example of why the T-Birds could crack the conference’s top four this season.

Twice a 50-point man in the WHL, Manning is a huge addition for the T-Birds, who haven’t always landed the best B.C. players that head to the CIS ranks.

“He’s one of the most coveted defencemen from the Western Hockey League,” Dragicevic pointed out.

While his hockey skills will certainly be a good fit at UBC, so will Manning’s book smarts.

“He comes to UBC with an 88 per cent average and he’s an academic first. He wanted to get into the Sauder School of Business and with his average he qualified,” Dragicevic said. “I think that was the first priority. He’s been with the Giants for five years and it was just a natural fit.”

Lethbridge Pronghorns

After squeaking into the playoffs last season with six fifth-year veterans, only to be emphatically swept by Saskatchewan in the opening round, the Pronghorns enter the 2012-13 season with plenty of new faces.

With five recruits that played in the WHL last season, Lethbridge had a strong recruiting season. Despite being newcomers, former WHL captains Chase Schaber and Hayden Rintoul will be expected to bring with them leadership to a team that doesn’t feature a single fourth, or fifth-year player.

“Hayden Rintoul captained Victoria and Chase Schaber captained Kamloops,” Gatto pointed out. “For us that was huge. We got some leadership after losing (last year’s captain) Dustin Moore and a few other guys.

“Those guys give us instant leadership for a young team right away.”

Despite the positives of the offseason, Lethbridge will be in a battle for a playoff spot, but with an exuberant group of new players, this team should be in the race for the postseason until the bitter end.

“We’re going to be young and we’re going to make a few mistakes, but I think we’ll get better and better. We’re going to be exciting and we’re going to surprise some guys,” Gatto said.

Recruit spotlight:

Hayden Rintoul

Victoria Royals (WHL)

An offensive defencemen that can quarterback the power play is one of the pieces the Pronghorns have so desperately been missing for years.

In Rintoul, who had 51 points last season, that’s exactly what Lethbridge has found.

The four-year veteran of the WHL amassed 144 points in 260 career regular season games, meaning the always offensive Pronghorns will have some pop from the backend.

Regina Cougars

With new head coach Todd Johnson comes a fresh face and plenty of Canada West experience from his playing career at the University of Calgary.

The former Memorial Cup winning player with the Kamloops Blazers in 1992, takes over the reins of the Regina program after Blaine Sautner stepped away from the coaching ranks after last season.

Taking over a team that won all of five games last season means Johnson, has his work cut out for him, as he returns to the level he had great success at as a Canada West MVP during the mid-‘90s.

“The transition is going well, but it’s completely different than the WHL for sure,” Johnson, who was an assistant in Kootenay last season, pointed out. “I don’t think it’s changed that much since I played. It’s a very high calibre league and the coaching is good. The players have been coached at a high level and they’re continuing to progress.”

While Johnson got it done as a player at the Canada West level, success is likely a few years away at best in the Saskatchewan capital, as the new coach takes over a five-win team from a season ago.

That coupled with being behind the pack in terms of recruiting after taking over the job in April, means Johnson’s true mark won’t be left on the Cougars for a few years.

Recruit spotlight:

Ward Szucki

Winkler Flyers (MJHL)

Without a player straight out of the WHL, Regina’s recruiting class doesn’t stand up in a very strong year across the rest of the conference.

Ward Szucki, who spent two years in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League before heading to Manitoba’s junior A circuit, will get ice time as a rookie.

A 44-point man last season, Johnson sees a strong upside from the six-foot-five forward.

“It’s so hard to tell where guys are going to fit in. I think Ward Szucki, a player out of Winnipeg, is going to do well for us,” Johnson pointed out.

While the fact that the Cougars from Regina will be taking on the Cougars from Mount Royal a number of times this season, Mount Royal’s inaugural season at the Canada West level will be no joking matter.

With a long history of success at the ACAC level and a head coach in Jean LaForest that’s held in high regard among his peers from the collegiate level, LaForest has developed a program that despite bringing in only three WHL grads this season, will be very competitive.

“As a Western Hockey League grad there are lots of opportunities and not just in Western Canada,” LaForest pointed out. “They’re highly recruited, so it’s not only competitive within our conference, but across the CIS.

“For us it’s like anything else, we look at what’s our strength in terms of the program. The hockey program has been around for 100 years, so there’s a good history there and there’s been good success.”

While Mount Royal won’t likely compete for the conference crown in their first season, Calgary’s edition of the Cougars will very much be in the mix to crack the postseason, as they hope to get their Canada West career started on the right foot.

Recruit spotlight

Nathan MacMaster

Tri-City Americans (WHL)

One of three recruits to join the Cougars this season straight out of the WHL, winger Nathan MacMaster will get the opportunity to play right away.

That’s something the 11-point man from last year might not have gotten at other Canada West school’s, but it should serve his game well in the long term.

A four-year vet of the WHL, the Calgary product will be given the chance to grow into a key player for Mount Royal in the coming years.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.